Yesterday, the 50 USA Fellows for 2011 were announced and we are proud to say we have worked with six of them (Thatâ€™s 12%!)

Once a year, the philanthropic organization United States Artists selects 50 exceptional artists as fellows, giving them $50,000 each. Fellows are nominated by an anonymous group, which changes each year, consisting of individuals who are well versed in the arts and live throughout the United States. Prizes are awarded to artists in Architecture & Design, Crafts & Traditional Arts, Dance, Literature, Media, Music, Theater Arts, and Visual Arts.

According to the official USA website, artists must have: â€śExpert artistic skills, Artistic education or training (formal or informal), A history of deriving income from those skills, A history of active engagement in creating artwork and presenting it to the public.â€ť

Donald Byrd: Modern dance choreographer and artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater, Byrd choreographed Tony Award nominated The Color Purple and won a Bessie Award for The Minstrel Show. He also choreographed Phildanco, who performed at MASS MoCA in 2003.

John Jasperse: Contemporary choreographer and dancer whose company performed at MASS MoCA this past August. Jasperese is known for his unique, evocative pieces which incorporate visual design into dance.

Liz Lerman: Lerman has choreographed multiple shows at MASS MoCA, including a site specific piece to Ann Hamiltonâ€™s corpusÂ (when Building 5 snowed falling paper) and when she danced the mapping of the human genome in Ferocious Beauty: Genome. She breaks conventions of dance by incorporating spoken word and imagery and hiring seniors as her dancers.